It wouldn't be a birthday in the UK without a caterpillar cake, and whilst it's not my birthday, my baby aka my blog celebrates it's 16th birthday today eeek. When I clicked publish on that first post, I never thought that I would outlast so many of my favourite blogs, and still be churning out posts (all be it sporadically!) 16 years later, and what a 16 years it's been!
So much has changed in that time, not only in my own life but also in the worlds of fashion, beauty and of course social media. Blogging to be honest now is a bit passe, people, advertisers and brands, now seem to want faster, simpler content like Instagram and Tik Tok which I can completely understand, but whilst I do dabble in other mediums (check out the links in my sidebar), blogging is the place where I feel really at home, using all be it rambling words to express my feelings, views and frustrations, as I muddle through life.
I'm not going to lie the last few years have been rough not only personally but also blogging wise. Although I am partially to blame, lack of engagement and lack of progression has all made me wonder if it's all worth while, but I still love writing and creating content, and blogging gives me an outlet and a place I can escape to when life gets a little bit too much. Not only that but my stats show that there are still some of you out there that continue to read my blog even when I haven't posted for an age, which is still pretty amazing to me and I really can't thank you enough.
So I guess the gist of this is that I'm not going away anytime soon, I'm trying not to look too far into the future (one of my very bad habits!) instead focusing more on the here and now, and despite several blips at the start of this year, LouLouLand will continue into 2023 and hopefully beyond that.
This year has had a slightly delayed start because, and yes this is the main reason, my mam ordered me a new bed as part of my Christmas present. My old one as you can see was well past it's best, and it was starting to interfere with my sleep, and my pain levels, so I asked for something practical from Santa. We managed to get a really good price on one in the after Christmas sales but we couldn't get it delivered till the end of January - annoying but on reflection it was the best thing that could have happened. My room had to basically be gutted, to get the old bed out and the new one in, and believe me it was hard work, especially for two people with chronic illness but the room was cleared, the bed base was removed and yes I ended up sleeping on a pretty wrecked mattress on the floor for about a week which did nothing for my back.
Eventually we got both the mattress and the bed frame outside for council collection, the new one arrived, and thankfully the fabulous delivery guys took it upstairs for us so it just needed minimal assembly, and voila, new Orla Kiely bedding, and a new duvet, and already my sleep had improved at least 90%, and my back feels less achey when I wake up - result!
Getting the bed back in was the main thing, but we're still unpacking boxes and try to find homes for all the shoe boxes that were under my bed, the furniture is all back in now but since I've decided to go through my belongings with a charity bag in hand as I'm bringing things back in, I've still got quite a way to go before every is back in and in it's correct place - arghhhhh! why is nothing in my world ever simple?
There is no question that I've been doing too much physical stuff so I'm seriously lacking in spoons at the moment hence I haven't really had the energy to do much of anything else, including blogging. That been said I do actually have a couple of posts that are just about ready to go up, so you'll hopefully see both of those next week and I can actually start 2023 properly.
I have no idea in all honesty what direction the blog is really going to go in this year but I'm going to try and live a bit more in the moment and post about what I want, when I want. I have lots of ideas flying around in my head about things that I want to do but as per usual it's about putting them into practise x So Happy Sweet Sixteen LouLouLand, it's been a journey and thanks to your support, and my own bloody mindedness, it's not over yet x
If you're a regular reader of my blog then you'll know just how important sleep is to me. Amongst other things I have ME / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Fibromyalgia, and sleep issues are a major part of my chronic illness experience.
As well as pain and muscle cramps and spasms that can affect the quality of my sleep, I suffer from bouts of severe insomnia, and then periods of extreme tiredness when I can literally sleep for 18 hours straight, and then still feel exhausted and like something the cat dragged in! I never feel truly rested and I always feel tired even when I'm struggling to sleep!
Whilst not everyone experiences the sleep issues that I do, I can pretty much guarantee that most of you that are reading this post either don't get enough sleep, or you have the occasional sleepless night - that's modern life for you I guess, If you do struggle with your sleep though , I've posted about a lot of things in the past that help me, such as adopting a proper night time routine, avoiding screen time before bed, and partaking in more restful activities before bed such drinking herbal teas, and meditation, but there is something else that you can do, and whilst it seems like such as an obvious, more often than not it's probably a bit of an afterthought.
Due to the old chronic illness thing I spend quite a lot of time in bed, and it really is my sanctuary and safe space. It sounds obvious but it is so important that your bed itself is welcoming and conducive to sleep, and as well as the bed itself, that starts with your bedding, your comforter or duvet, and your pillows!
If you're having trouble sleeping, or you're waking up and feel headachy, stiff or tired, one of the things that could be affecting your sleep are your pillows! Whether you choose feather or down, fibre fill or memory foam, if it isn't the right type of pillow for you build and your sleeping position, you're opening yourself up to sleepless nights and a world of pain.
For as long as I can remember I've used proper feather and down pillows, (not the same ones obviously, unlike a lot of people, I do try and replace mine every few years or so :), and whilst the constant plumping, and loose feathers can be a pain, up until recently I'd always been fairly happy with them.
Within the last 12 -18 months or so though all of that changed. I bought new allegedly firm, feather and down pillows in that period, and for some reason I felt as though these ones weren't giving enough support, I was waking up with an even stiffer neck than usual, and no matter how much I thumped and plumped them, they kept ending up floppy and flat, and they just didn't feel firm enough.
One day though after a not so great nights sleep, I received an email on behalf of The Fine Bedding Company that was potentially the answer to my prayers.
If you an unfamiliar with them, The Fine Bedding Company are a 4th generation owned, UK based bedding company, that have been producing and retailing, down, feather and innovative fibre bedding for over 100 years. Their top company priorities are sustainability and comfort, and their UK factory works on an eco friendly, zero waste philosophy using only ethically sourced materials. They do a whole range of different bedding products including duvets, pillow and mattress protectors, toppers and enhancers, linens and pillow cases, and of course pillows.
I kindly given the chance to try out a pillow of my choice from the extensive range on their website, but with more than 20 pillows in their range, how earth do you choose one? Well The Fine Bedding Company make everything simple, and their website features amongst other things a handy guide to help you choose your perfect pillow!
I'm predominantly a side sleeper. so according to their guide I needed a firmer, more high profile pillow, that offered extra support to my head and my neck, and that would help to align my spine. I also wanted to try a firmer pillow so the pillow that was recommended to me was the Dual Support Memory Foam Pillow.
With their first class heritage and quality, a 14 day return policy, and free delivery on all orders over £50, it's no surprise that The Fine Bedding Company supply a whole host of 4 and 5 start hotels, everything about my experience was first class!
My pillow came via courier service and it came wrapped and then packaged in a good quality reusable storage bag with rubber logo zip fastening and rope handles - great for storing bedding, or even clothes or soft toys. Alongside my lovely pillow the bag also contained a care and a information leaflet to help you to get the best out of your pillow.
Thanks to the winter light these pictures don't really show this pillow off in it's best light but with this particular pillow you really do get the best of both worlds, it's basically two pillows in one, with one side being made from "ultra fresh microbial treated" temperature controlled memory foam for ultimate support
That piece of memory foam then slips inside a zipped cotton pillowcase, which features an attached, fixed section of sustainable smart fill, soft breathable, light as down microfibres, which is machine washable at 40℃, so you have one side for support or structure, and one side for cloud like snuggly comfort.
Now I like height and support so I normally sleep on two pillows, but to give this pillow a good work out I started off by trying it on it's own, so I cleared all of the rest of the pillows off my bed to ensure that I was just sleeping on this one!
Given the lack of height I was expecting to struggle a little bit, but by lying with my head directly on the foam side I found that it offered more than enough support for both my head and my neck, that being said though I did miss my usual height, so after that little week long experiment I switched out and I've been using this particular pillow on top on one of my usual feather and down pillows, and I all I can say is wow!
I didn't really expect to much of a difference but by using predominantly the memory side (my favourite side by far) up over, I felt supported, and I seemed to less better, I didn't seem to toss and turn so much, there was no middle of the night pillow plumping, and although I still experience a bit of stiffness in the morning I've definitely been waking up with less neck pain and fewer headaches.
I'm a fairly hot sleeper, and I was a little bit worried, even though that it was designed to be temperature controlled, that the memory foam would retain heat, and I would be too hot, but I needn't have worried, I still experienced that fabulous cool side of the pillow feeling, and I didn't experience any strange rubber or plastic smells, even when the pillow was fresh out of the bag!
I've been using this pillow since just before Christmas (as you can see from the picture above ;) and I have to say that I'm a total convert to the world of memory foam, and even though I'm still to manage it, I'm definitely going to be picking up a least one more matching pillow for the other side of my bed.
The Fine Bedding Company Dual Support Memory Foam Pillow retails at £47 and it available directly from The Fine Bedding Company as well as from selected retails.
If memory foam isn't for you though don't worry, The Fine Bedding Company stock a while variety of different pillows including traditional feather and down, vegan friendly fill, as well as duvets, mattress toppers, sheets, pillowcases, and duvet covers, in other words pretty much everything that you would need for the perfect nights sleep, bar the bed that is ;)
Please let me know if you have any questions and I hope that your dreams are as sweet as all the chocolate that I've consumed over the last week and a bit was ;) Thanks for reading xx
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Have you ever had one of those days where you just can't concentrate on anything, and where if someone asked you your name, you wouldn't be able to remember it? Well I think I'm having one of those weeks! Last night I started uploading a You Tube video only to notice this morning that I'd actually updated the wrong one! Argh bigger disasters at sea I suppose, so instead of getting a Primark haul, today your getting another collective home haul instead. Of course I hadn't edited any of the photos that I needed, so guess what I've spent all afternoon doing!
It's been a bit dull and rainy this afternoon though, so I've been chilling out with a few candles lit and working on my tappy lappy, as mum affectionately calls it. it therefore makes sense to start off this haul with a few (or a lot of) scented candles.
In the last home haul that I posted I showed you a lovely hamper of Yankee Candles from QVC that I'd picked up on auto delivery, well just before I'd finished that post my second Yankee Candle 39 Piece Seasonal Hamper arrived.
Again it came beautifully packaged in a sturdy canvas storage basket, and like before it contained, 12 of Yankee's famous votive / sampler candlers. You got two of each in the following autumnal fragrances, Autumn Nights, Sweet Apple, Ebony and Oak, Rhubarb Crumble, Honey Clementine and Cranberry Pear.
It also contained two green bucket style, glass votive holders, and two boxes of 12 tea lights, in the Autumn Night and Honey Clementine fragrances.
I've got to be honest and say that are a few fragrances in this drop, that just aren't me, I'm still going to burn them and try them though, and if I don't like them, I may hold a little Yankee Candle giveaway later in the year. Last time I looked this kit was actually still available on QVC UK all be it for a higher price than what I paid. I think there kits are a great way to try some new fragrances, and I'm in love with a couple of new discoveries, Cranberry Pear and Rhubarb Crumble. If you can't get your hands on this kit, most of these fragrances should be available from various other Yankee Candle retailers.
Although I love my Yankee Candles, over the last few months I have been trying to try out a few different candle brands, and after buying my mum one of their Parma Violet fragranced candles for her birthday, I recently bought myself a candle from Flamingo Candles, in the fragrance Mango and Dragonfruit.
Believe me this smells as good as it sounds, sweet, tangy and mouthwateringly fruity. I love the sparkly acrylic flamingo on the jar and I'm in love with this candle. I got mine from the Littlewoods catalogue website but you can also buy Flamingo Candles from various retailers and of course from their own website.
Someone that I have tried candles from in the past is NEXT, I particularly love their Festive Spice fragranced candles and reed diffusers and I've also been pretty happy with the other fragrances that I've tried from them but for a change I decided to try out some of their other festive fragrances.
Beautifully packaged in triangle, tree like box, tied with a ribbon, this set of 6 fragranced candles, which was just £12 would make a perfect gift.
The box contained 6 candles packaged in different coloured, mercury glass votives, which you could probably reuse. All of the fragrances have a festive feel, and include, Gingerbread, Figgy Pudding, Under The Mistletoe, Cream Liqueur, Mulled Wine and Roasted Chestnut.
Each candle burns for around 15 hours and whilst some of them don't smell quite as I expected, you get a really nice selection of fruity, warming, fresh and woody scents. All of the candles in this box are available in a larger size and I've already bought Mulled Wine in the full size. Many moons ago Yankee Candles produced a fragrance, also called Mulled Wine which I loved, and this is the closest fragrance that I've ever found to it. Please can we have this one in a reed diffuser too, NEXT, pretty please!
I do love a reed diffuser, they make a great substitute for conventional air fresheners, and get a good one and you can easily fragrance a whole room, or even a house without the need to too many chemicals or a naked flame. I do love NEXT's for ever day and for their festive scents, but again I always come to a Yankee and one of my favourite ever fragrances from them, is Lemon Lavender.
Yankee do a couple of different types of diffuser but I do love the traditional candle jar look of this one. I can easily get a couple of months out of one of these in my room, they key is to just keep turning the reeds to refresh the fragrance.
I think I'm going to leave this one in storage till after Christmas now though, as I'm currently in a very foodie, fruity and festive fragrance mood at the moment, hence this purchase of yet another candle!
Although I love Yankee and other brands for their quality and burn time, I couldn't resist this Poundworld purchase. This is a lovely fruity fragrance that is supposedly reminiscent of a Powdered Blueberry Krispy Kreme, have never personally smelled one i can't say but this certainly smells edible! These can't actually that bad for the price I've had a few under the Betty Crocker, Skittles and Chewits branding and they all provide a pleasant if intimate fragrance.
Ahh I do love a pound shop, and although it is still a tiny bit early, I've recently picked up a few things from Poundland's Christmas range.
Ho Ho Ho indeed, I couldn't resist this Santa mug, made of ceramic, it has a cute little slot underneath for your biscuit. There isn't a huge amount of space for drink but I think that this would be perfect for little people.
Over the years I've managed to accumulate quite a few festive character tea light holders from Poundland, and this little fella is my newest addition. I prefer to use these with battery operated tea lights, but obviously you can also use them with a real flame.
Open any interiors magazine and something that seems to be bigger than ever before is lighting. For many years, lighting was an essential but now it's become a trend and more often than not a design feature in the home. I love a bit of mood lighting and the next few pieces that I'm going to show you are about the light.
The first buy is again from Poundland's festive range, and it's another set of battery operated string lights. They have some lovely ones at the moment, and the majority of them to me could be used all round. My mum's already picked up a set of white wooden star lights but I loved this retro looking light bulb string.
I love my fairy lights but at the moment I'm also loving initial lights I already have one but this one that I picked up from Studio was just £9.99 and it was very different to the one that I already have
It's make of wood and it has a smaller, squatter shape than my other Primark metal L. Again it's battery operated and the LED lights are also quite small. As well as the entire alphabet they also have a variety of numbers too.
Something else that I got from Studio, was a Cinematic Lightbox. These are absolutely everywhere at the moment, and I've so many bloggers with them, that it was inevitable that I would jump on the bandwagon.
This one which is around an A4 size was £14.99 and contained 71 letter, number and punctuation tiles. You can get these cheaper but it's better to shop around a little bit. Some of of them are smaller, and some of them don't contain that many tiles. This one don't contain enough letter U's of all things so I had a little look on eBay and i managed to get myself another couple of sets of letters.
The next couple of things that I got from Studio were from my bedroom. First up something pretty boring - this rubber doorstop which was just 99p.
You can get doorstops pretty much anywhere, but I loved the flower detail on this one, my bedroom door has an annoying habit of slamming when any of the upstairs windows are opened so I'm hoping this quirky doorstep will keep it still.
Next up bedding, I didn't really need another duvet set but I loved the colours and the floral pattern on this one, which was just £11.99 for the double set and also from Studio.
Not the best picture I'm afraid but this is what it looks like on the bed. If you're not a Studio customer, B&M stores have the same set for a slightly pricier £14.99.
I love my bedroom pretties and when I saw this particular product on the H&M website, I added it straight to my basket.
I love my pineapples and I now have a display of all my pineapple candles, and trinket boxes on one of my new IKEA Helmer's. This large glass and gold tone glass jar was £7.99 and it also came in a few plain colours.
From sensible pretties, to fun and silly, and another few purchases from Tiger Stores. Like pineapples, Cacti have been everywhere this year, on cushions, clothing and even on the humble eraser.
This one was just £1 and it has major kitsch appeal, I don't think I'll ever use it, but I love a bit of quirky stationery, speaking of which..
I love my daisies and this quirky set just appealed. Again from Tiger, it's a plastic daisy case which contained a variety of mini stationery bits including a mini stapler and staples, mini scissors, a mini highlighter pen, a mini sellotape dispenser, and some mini sticky note page markers.
My final purchase in this haul and from Tiger, was a bit of silly one, a set of make your own paper flowers. I love my crafting and to be honest I haven't done enough of it lately. This kit makes a variety of layered paper flowers which you can then go on to use as card toppers or in scrap booking.
I know that was a pretty extensive and candle filled haul, and whilst it wasn't what I intended to post today I hope you enjoyed it or found it useful x You can watch the offending video below or via this link, so don't forget to have a watch and of course subscribe x
If you have any questions on any of my buys, or if you fancy linking me up to your own home and lifestyle video and post then leave me a comment below x
So far this year hauls have been a bit thin on the ground for me - I really am trying to be good this year but for the past month or so I'd really been craving a Primark trip. I hadn't been to Primark since before Christmas and I was suffering for severe withdrawal symptoms! So last week I eventually managed to get my fix and predictably I bought a few things.
I love watching haul videos and reading haul posts and the first thing that I got was something that I'd seen on quite a few blogs and instagram posts...
According to Mummy Lou I have quite an obsessive personality, and two of the things that I'm slightly obsessed with are bedding, and daisies, so buying this duvet set was pretty much a given. This cotton and polyester mix duvet and pillowcase set is double sided - one side features large daisies and flowers on a back ground and the other side features a daisy chain pattern on a coral, pink background. I got the double which was just £11. I'd just made my bed so I haven't put this on the bed yet but I'll stick some pictures onto Instagram when I do x
You can also get matching cushions in two sizes and whilst I stayed strong on the day, my cushion obsessions is kicking back in and I'm really tempted to go back and get one of the larger ones. Primark's home wear collection just keeps getting better and better and whilst I didn't buy anything else on this visit, I can't wait to see some of the new additions when the Metro Centre store completes it's expansion.
Although it feels like it's still winter in my little part of County Durham, the shops are now full of Spring and Summer fashions and Primark is no exception. To be honest I don't need any clothes at the moment especially since I'm trying to lose a bit of weight so I only bought two things, something for now and something that will ideal for the warmer weather.
I know they aren't always the trendiest or coolest things but I'm a big fan of jeggings, You have the comfort of a legging but the look and feel of a skinny jean, but without all those zips and buttons that seem to embed themselves into your flesh! I buy most of my jeggings in H&M or Asda, but a few months ago I tried a pair of Primark's and for the price they were pretty decent. They had a couple of new colours in this time round a real stone 80's stone wash and this bright blue pair. They look a bit more of a navy blue in these pics but in real life they are a much brighter blue. These jeggings are only £7 and they are stupidly comfy.
I wear jeggings all year round but the next thing that I got is probably more suitable for the warmer weather.
This pretty sleeveless ivory lace detail top was just £10, it's quite sheer so I would need to wear a vest or a camisole underneath it but I just thought it was unbelievably cute. It has a little collar, a tie at the neck, lace detail around the neck, shoulders and decolletage, and little lace trimmed cap sleeves. It also features little pleats and pin tucks.
That was it for clothing but I did buy a few accessories, including two lots of hair bobbles.
I got some Invisibobbles in a recent beauty box, and I really liked them. Although my hair is in a pretty good place at the moment (find out why soon!) I've suffered from quite a lot of hair problems over the years, and having long hair I;m always careful what I use to tie it back with. I normally use Primark Opia plain, metal free, bobbles (read my review / rave here) but I really liked the Invisibobbles. Marks and indentations in the hair don't really bother me but I like that way that they don't seem to pull out chunks of hair when your take them out. They aren't cheap though so I'm really hoping that these Primark alternatives do the trick. I first saw these on the lovely Ray's blog Who Is She, and whilst I couldn't find find the exact ones she had, I got the metallic rubberised coil rings, which have little charms on them that you can see above, which were £2 for 5, and a pack of black, fabric hair rings, which were £1 for 6.
I think that the rubber ones might stretch a bit overtime but I'll see how I get on and I'll let you know. The next thing that I bought was something that I nearly bought over Christmas.
Why on earth I didn't buy it at the time I'll never know - it was only £1 for goodness sake. Never mind at least I managed to get it in the end. All it is a gold tone ring, in a sort of cage design, with a thin, black oval stone. I liked the idea of cage or kiss rings like this but I wasn't sure how comfortable they would be. Surprisingly though despite the size and the shape this ring is actually really comfrotable and easy to wear, and it was a bargain.
The final thing that I got (apart from some Minion Tic Tacs!) was an old favourite and something I buy every time I go into Primark...the duo pack of the PS Love Your Skin Oil Balancing Facial Cleansing Wipes For Combination Skin
These wipes are just £1 for two packs of 25 wipes, and to be honest I've lost count of how many packs I've used. I very rarely use them for my face though, I normally use them for either freshening up on the go or for cleaning up swatches. I used nearly two packets already this month for swatch cleaning so I thought I better stock up.
I had intended to have a look at the new look Primark Beauty range, which I'd seen online and includes some new foundations, some velvet lip pans, and a pretty exciting Urban Decay Naked Palette dupe, but the usual stands were nowhere to be found. I'm presuming that they were missing either due to the store makeover or due to the new launches but I'm hoping they'll be back soon.
I'm already planning another Primark trip to pick up a few things that I left behind, and to look for a few things that I couldn't find, so if you have any recommendations or you've done your own haul post or video then please let me know x In the meantime please take some time out to watch the video to accompany this haul either below or via my You Tube channel x Thanks for watching and thanks for reading x
